evolution
by nightfall26
Summary: the five stages it takes for them to realize that love is madness, blindness, and beauty. it is something to be feared and something to desire, something that can cause wars and end them at the same time. Z x K


**hello loves! as per usual, I don't own A:TLA. **

**this is different from my usual writing style, I hope you all enjoy (: **

**review!**

**~nightfall26**

_i. pain._

She is a girl with light in her eyes and hope in the way her mouth curls upwards. He frowns instead of smiling when he sees her because he knows something has changed inside him. He frowns because he has hurt her in innumerable ways and she can't keep the fury out of her face when she looks at him. He hopes that she'll look at him again, that she'll accept his weary apology and smile at him the same way she smiles at the Avatar. But her voice is raspy and harsh when she speaks and he knows she can't forgive him yet.

But when she does, the way her arms fold around him make his heart throb with a longing deeper than anything he has ever known. It hurts, because her eyes are only for a bald monk that doesn't know what love is yet.

He wonders if he'll survive their last battle together and a part of him doesn't really care if he does or not. She is one of the last few things he can admit that he cares about and the only thing just out of his reach.

But he learns to reach farther.

And she learns to look at what's right in front of her.

Some days he thinks she looks at him with new eyes that skim his bare chest while her cheeks redden. Some nights she sits by the fire with him when everyone else is asleep and he swears that her hand strays to rest next to his in a way that makes him want to scream his love to the world. Sometimes he can taste the tension between them and it makes him smile a little before he goes to sleep because suddenly it doesn't seem so impossible that such a woman could learn to love a beast like him.

And when the Avatar skips up to her some days, singing her praises and wondering why her eyes don't light up when she sees him anymore, something selfishly celebrates inside the broken prince.

* * *

_ii. pretend._

The war has brought him a clarity that he hadn't known he'd possessed. He wants to call her his and she wants to be next to him. They yearn. They hope. But they never tell a soul.

There is a sort of relief in her eyes that he knows hasn't been there for a long time when the fighting seems to be ending. He stares, openly, his eyes falling onto hers like stars. She recognizes the awe in his face, its been there before. The fire in the sky haunts them, throws them into shadow, forces them together and pushes them apart all at once. Her eyes focus on his gaze in a way that makes them believe that something like love could exist in a world as broken as theirs. Her hand reaches out into the vastness between them, and when his hand collides with hers, their worlds are linked in a way that is meant to be.

"We're safe." He says, meaning it, promising her with those two words that he'd keep her close to him. The smile that parts her lips is new and old, lips cracked and curved up hopelessly in a way that screams affection. She has only felt this connected to another being once before; the first time being with him. She thinks that this is it, this is her one, her only, her world- no, she knows it. He feels it in the energy that sparks between them and all at once they aren't two people but they're one, they're together, they are eternal and yet so fragile.

Moments later, their hands are ripped apart by a sudden burst blue flame, a voice that screams angry but empty threats and a fear that resonates in the very ground_._ She knows he is in danger, and yet she can't do anything but try to keep herself alive. Lightning sparkles in the sky high above her and she can only watch in horror as it sizzles through the air towards her.

He knows he has to save her. The pain is worth it, he thinks, it's worth it to make sure that she keeps breathing. When he can feel the touch of her hands on his face, he knows that he was successful. She promises him, now, that he's safe, that she's here with him until the day he dies. Her fingers are light as she unbuttons his shirt to heal a heart long broken. Her tears fall like rain on his chest and he knows that she is his.

"Please, _please, _stay with me." She begs and pleads and hopes as her hands work magic on his deep wound. The moment between them is so intimate and yet so public, so full of emotion that they can't express because suddenly Sokka is there, suddenly they are all there, watching in utter horror as she tries to save something she never wanted to lose.

He stays with her. He promises forever under his breath, as he hugs her in a way that looks plutonic but really they know it isn't.

She cries with relief and he wipes the tears from her cheeks with hands softened by love.

* * *

_iii. purpose._

Aang watches her for days.

She can't avoid him any longer, she knows, she can't help but see the frustration in his eyes and the hurt resonating in his soul.

"Be happy." He tells her, brokenly, sadly, wanting her to be his but knowing she can't be. Her eyes are as deep and dark as the ocean as she regards him with an endless sadness. She loves him, she tells him. He knows it isn't enough.

When he turns his back on her that day, she knows it is the last time she will ever see him until she is an old woman and she can no longer count the wrinkles on her face.

* * *

_iv. purgatory._

On the day of her wedding, she cries. She cries harder than she has for anything in her life; save for her mother's death. She knows that she's alone today. Her brother refused to come out of pure fear of how the Fire Nation would react to having a member of the Water Tribe amongst them. Her father had granted the Fire Lord permission to marry her, but he had yet to decide if he was going to set foot in her new life or not.

And the Avatar was gone. Long gone. Nobody had spotted him in weeks.

So she sat, listening to the cries of horror from the people outside her window, chanting for her death, her end, her removal from the royal palace. Her eyes were red and raw from tears and for once water was not a comfort to her.

Nobody would care that her dress was white because she wanted to symbolize her neutrality to the world, her peaceful offering to the nation she now lived in, her white flag for hope that the people would be kind to her. Nobody would notice that her hair had been intricately curled and woven with pearls, or that she was wearing makeup for one of the first times in her life. Nobody but _him._

She told herself that he was all that mattered, that he would think she was beautiful and that he wouldn't regret his decision.

It was only a matter of moments before the ceremony was set to begin, and she already had a stack of death threats on her bed. When there came a knock at her door, she was almost fearful to answer it. But then she remembered she had a bathtub of water at her disposal and that she was fiercer than a lion when she waterbended. So she got to her feet and opened the door with a stoic expression and a steeled heart.

But the people beyond were her friends.

Sokka, Suki, and Toph stand there, teary eyed, holding flowers and presents and each other. They admit to lying to her so that they could surprise her, and she scolds them but loves them all the more for their dishonesty.

"There was no way that we wouldn't be here for you, sweetness." Toph tugs on her skirt, fingering the material and smiling up at her with clouded eyes.

"You're way too important to us." Suki adds, holding her husbands hand and tucking a white rose behind her friends ear. Sokka could do nothing but hug his sister and cry a little for how hard her life had become, but also how beautiful it would be.

"Family is forever." Sokka whispers, holding his sisters hands.

By the time she made it to the altar, she notices her three biggest allies sitting in the front row along with her father, and her hands grip her bouquet even tighter as she forces tears from her eyes.

And when her eyes meet his golden ones as he stands there, proudly, in his regal robes and his top knot, she knew that she's made the right decision. The butterflies in her stomach and the yearning in her heart lead her to the absolute love of her life, and she knows that no matter the hardship, she will always have her family fighting right along with her for what she believes is right.

And he is so much more than right.

* * *

_v. peace._

He is a boy with fire in his heart and passion in the way he says her name. His hands are always entwined in hers now and when he wakes up he is greeted by her face every morning. All his life, he has wanted nothing more than to feel loved by someone as fiery as himself. They fit together, he knows, and they have since the moment they met.

He loves the way her hands feel on his bare chest when they lie awake in bed, talking about the mysteries of life and spilling their souls to one another in the darkness of late nights and early mornings. He takes her on long adventures through the countryside, his hand in hers as he boyishly grins and explains what each place meant to him as a child.

She misses him when he leaves to go on trips across the world and rules in his stead, taking care of the people who are learning to love her while she blesses them with her never ending kindness. The streets are clean and open now, lined with bustling shops and people that smile when they pass by. She volunteers and touches peoples lives with her motherly instinct, loving the world and waiting for it to love her back. They still don't accept the color of her eyes or the way she bends but they try to; and she knows that is the best they can do for now.

He takes her with him on trips when he can, and they see the world in a new light when they are together. People are learning to sigh in relief when they see the colors of the Fire Nation. They are rebuilding their broken world, mending the hurt with a steady hand. It will take years to rebuild all that has been broken and everyone knows it. They celebrate every village that they repair, every bridge that is constructed, every life that is saved. The Avatar does the same, but he is careful to always avoid her never ending blue eyes. She never once looks for him.

Being Fire Lord suits him, she thinks, as he gets ready in the mornings and wears heavy brocaded robes in shades of reds that make his eyes burn. She brushes her hair and thinks about how lucky she is that love is such a part of her life.

She thinks about how she almost didn't have it, and remembers the misery that haunted her steps once when she hid her affections. But that is nothing but a nightmare now, and he loves her for all that she is and all that she wants to be. He loves the curves of her waist and the long tendrils of her hair, the softness of her touch and the burn of her temper. He loves her eternally and irrevocably and asks for nothing in return, but she gives endlessly.

Years pass this way, but not always in such contentment. Marriage is something they take to like water, gliding easily half the time and struggling against the current the other half. They fight, they scream at each other until dawn and then fall into each others arms with apologies on their lips. They are opposites and yet not; fire and water but yet made from the same strength.

She learns to cook things other than sea prunes and tries to impress him with foods that he loves, sometimes burning it and making the servants laugh at her efforts. He learns to bring her roses when she's sad and to write her long letters when he's gone- and sometimes even when he isn't. They learn patience and how to let off steam without hurting each other.

They learn to forget the horrors of the war that shattered their childhoods by inviting Sokka and his family over often, with Toph and Aang not far behind.

And above all, they learn to forget that they are two people and become one.

They watch the sunset from their balcony, cradled easily in each others arms and feeling the warmth of each others bodies. She looks up at him with eyes clearer than the sea after a storm, gazing up at the man that she loves with adoration that has rested in her gaze since the moment she met him. He brushes the pads of his fingertips across the smoothness of her hair, thanking the gods that she came into his life and decided to stay.

"It's beautiful outside tonight, isn't it, Zuko?"

"Not as beautiful as you are."

"Sap."

"Only for you, Katara."

He smiles hugely at her then, and she knows that she's found something more beautiful than anything else in the world, just as he knows that he has something special in his arms.

**drop me a line and review! I love you all, I hope you enjoyed this.**

**~nightfall26**


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